W2R: Catalog of 4,316 Bright Active Galactic Nuclei Candidates

A catalog of 4,316 bright, highly likely active galactic nucleus (AGN) candidates identified using a statistical method (S_IX) applied to combined WISE, 2MASS, and ROSAT all-sky survey data. The sample contains nearly 2,000 new, relatively bright (J <~ 16) AGNs not previously in a major spectroscopic catalog. This table was created by NASA's HEASARC in June 2012 based on the reference paper.

Use Cases

• Identifying new AGN candidates for spectroscopic follow-up based on infrared and X-ray signatures.
• Quantifying biases and incompleteness in existing AGN catalogs based on brightness and sky location.
• Constructing AGN samples for specific regions of the sky, given the density of better than 1 bright AGN per 10 square degrees.
• Training or validating machine learning models for AGN classification using multi-survey photometric data.

Strengths

• Contains 4,316 sources with a >~ 95% likelihood of being an AGN based on the S_IX statistic.
• Includes nearly 2,000 new AGN candidates not listed in a major spectroscopic catalog.
• Method was optimized with preliminary WISE and Sloan Digital Sky Survey data and tested with spectroscopy.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is known (4,316), but specific column names and data types are unknown.

Provenance

Source

NASA HEASARC, based on Table 3 from the reference paper.

Collection Method

Sources identified by applying the S_IX statistic to combined WISE, 2MASS, and ROSAT all-sky survey data.

Time Range

null

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 18:33:03.059669; freshness should be verified.

Geography

All-sky coverage, but completeness noted to be lower for southern samples and near the Galactic plane.